Anti-fumble trainer football



June 17,- 1969 A. J. RUSSO J 3,450,407

ANTI-FUMBLE TRAINER FOOTBALL Filed Jan. 26, 1967 IN VENTOR ALBERT JRusso United States Patent O 3,450,407 ANTLFUMBLE TRAINER FOOTBALLAlbert J. Russo, 21 South College Ave.,

Salem, Va. 24153 Filed Jan. 26, 1967, Ser. No. 612,001 Int. Cl. A63b41/00 U.S. Cl. 273-65 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An inflatedfootball includes a liquid fluid whose quantity, weight, and ability toshift is such that it makes the football significantly more 'diflicultto handle than a football lacking said fluid.

This invention relates to footballs, and more particularly, to afootball especially designed and constructed so as to train the user tofumble less, or eliminate fumbling when it is used in training footballplayers. It is used mostly for backfield men, ends and centers, puntreceivers, the players who handle the ball during a game.

This invention consists of a typical football constructed of material soas to prevent any of the water, or any other fluid used, from leakingout when the football is in play.

The purpose of the fluid or water is to make the ball difficult tohandle because of the second-to-second shifting of the fluid or water todifferent parts of the ball. The ball, and the shifting weight, becomehard to control.

The principal object of this invention is to provide an anti-fumbletrainer football of the character herein-described that will alwayschange its weight second-tosecond according to the flush of the water orfluid to different parts of the ball as it is passed or handled.Efficiency in handling a regular air-filled ball is rendered simplerbecause of the training with a heavier, difficult to handle, water orfluid contained ball. The player learns to grip the ball more firmlywith his fingers. This grasping or seizing act is called prehension. Thediflicult, wobbly, fluid ball trains the fingers and hands to grasptightly, and thus the player fumbles less. It is this involuntary andvoluntary grasping or prehensive faculty of the hands and fingers whichis transferred to the air-filled ball during practice sessions or aregular football game. The player fumbles less because he has learned togrip the ball more firmly because the ball he trained with is so muchheavier and has a variable, gravitational pull according to thesecond-to-second location of the shifting fluid or water.

Another object of this invention is to provide an antifumble trainerfootball that is of the same configuration and size as any otherfootball.

Still another object of this invention is to provide an anti-fumbletrainer football of the character hereindescribed that can readily bemanufactured by any company already producing footballs without thenecessity of adding new and expensive equipment to its factory.

Other and further objects of this invention will no doubt come to mindas the reading of this specification proceeds and the appended drawingis examined.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a pictorial view of a typical anti fumble trainer football,made according to this specification.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of this invention, taken substantially alongline 2-2 of FIGURE 1, and viewed in the direction indicated by thearrows.

In the drawing, the reference number 5 indicates a typical football madeaccording to this specification, the football consisting of an innerlining 6 of any suitable waterproof flexible material. The aforesaidinner lining 6 being made as a water holding bag according to the usualmethods in this art. While the aforesaid inner lining 6 is provided witha filler tube in order that both air and Water may be placed in thesame, the filler tube is not shown in any of the views of the appendeddrawing for reasons of clarity.

The previously mentioned inner lining 6 is encompassed by the usualcovering 7 of a football, the covering being normally made in fourpieces that are indicated in the two views of the drawing by thereference numbers 8, 9, 10, and 11. Each of the four pieces of coveringis provided with an inturned edge 12 that has a surface 13 that fits,and is suitably secured, tightly against another one of the aforesaidsurfaces 13, as one can readily see by examining 'FIGURE 2 of theappended drawing. Here both inside surfaces of each joint are indicatedby one lead line and the reference number 13. An inner flap 14 is placedovertop of the portion 15 of the aforesaid inner lining 6 in order toprotect the portion of the football from the lace 16, used to securetogether that portion of the football 15 which is indicated by thereference numbers 8 and 11.

From the foregoing, it is seen that I have herein described the detailedconstruction of this novel invention of an anti-fumble trainer foot-ballthat can be modified in so long as any modifications made do notconflict with the construction of this invention of mine as set forth inthe appended claims.

What I now claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. An anti-fumble trainer football of prolate spheroidal shapecomprising a bladder of flexible waterproof material, said bladderincluding a gaseous fluid maintaining said bladder in a prolatespheroidal shape and a predetermined quantity of a liquid fluid, theliquid fluids quantity, weight and ability to shift to different partsof said bladder being such as to make said ball significantly morediflicult to handle by football players during football trainingsessions than a similar football lacking said predetermined quantity ofliquid fluid.

2. The invention of claim 1, wherein said bladder is encased in an outerprotective cover.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,531,931 3/1925 Hart 275-2,670,206 2/1954 Brewster 27358 X FOREIGN PATENTS 390,690 4/ 1933 GreatBritain.

GEORGE I. MARLO, Primary Examiner.

U.S. Cl. X.R.

